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Wednesday, 18 December 2013

How to report Twitter abuse and violations

Abuse

Here are the basic steps any person concerned should take:

"Where an individual is being abused: “Twitter can only accept reports from the individual directly involved in the abusive situation, or their legal representation. We encourage people to file reports of abuse so we that we can investigate the situation and take action if necessary,” quoted by Twitter.

To report both abusive content and unauthorised use of copyrighted and trademarked material, click here to access information on how to reporting accounts.

Libel/defamation

In the first instance contact the police where defamation/libel has occurred. At the same time you should report the account using the ‘Report Abusive User’ link provided above, and also request its removal via the links on the ‘How to report violations page’.

If you go down the copyrighted materials route, here is the information you require. You should say: “I am reporting on behalf of the rights holder, as their authorised representative.

Name of Rights Holder: Chris Shea. Your relationship to the rights holder: Colleague… if they ask for this information. We haven’t raised a trademark complaint on Twitter before and therefore don’t know what other questions are asked once you get into the form. Hopefully the information in this table should cover it.

Further reading and information

Further information from Twitter support page on dealing with online abuse here.

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Key cases, documents and articles

In Tamiz v Google [2013] here, the High Court in London found Google was not the publisher of defamatory material posted by someone using its blog facility, the judge suggesting you could not hold the owner of a wall responsible for graffiti sprayed on it by someone else.